Prepare For Life
by SarahZahde
Summary: A series of oneshots. Danny getting hurt will probably be a common theme.
1. Battle Scars

**Hey all! Zahde here. While this is technically a oneshot series it's unlikely that I'll be updating it very frequently. It's also not based on any lists, although… maybe I will do that in the future if I get inspired. I dunno. In any case, enjoy!**

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Danny leaned back in the chair, absentmindedly unsticking his legs from the warm white plastic. The day was perfect; warm sunlight soaked into his t-shirt and skin and seemed to chase away all the ghostly chills of the past year. The sounds of people playing in the pool at his feet was joyful to the point of serenity, invoking an almost zen-like feeling in the center of his chest.

Yeah. He felt _so _zen.

"Danny. Danny!" Danny shook himself awake and looked innocently through his sunglasses at Sam. She was already in her purple swimsuit, frowning at him quizzically. Her black swimming cape was draped casually around her shoulders. "Are you coming in?"

"Nah," he said smoothly, although he felt a guilty pang around his heart. "I'm still in the 'heat-soaking' stage of summer. Maybe when it gets _really _hot."

"Dude, it's hot NOW!" a voice called from the pool, and Tucker managed to splash a large amount of cold chlorinated water all over Danny's legs. He yelped and pulled his legs onto the recliner, then laughed it off. But Sam, who also got hit, threw her cape into Danny's face.

"You'll pay for that, Tucker!" she yelled, and jumped into the pool right behind the suddenly terrified boy, dragging him below the surface. Danny laughed, and for a wistful moment wished he could jump in with them. Well, he COULD. He would just look like a doofus with his t-shirt on in the pool.

And he couldn't take his shirt off. This was beyond his annual embarrassment over a pasty chest or less-than-stellar abs. Actually, all that ghost fighting was, dare he say it, _improving _his physique. But Danny's recent battle with Skulker had left a nasty wound running across the top of his left shoulder to the middle of his back. Not to mention his torso had all sorts of other battle scars that, if anyone cared to look closely enough, could raise awkward questions.

So for now, Danny was stuck on the sidelines. But it wasn't like swimming was the only thing to be done at Floody Waters. Maybe they could hit a roller coaster later or something.

"Hey FENTURD!" an annoyingly familiar voice called out, and that was all the warning Danny had before being completely soaked by a water gun. Sputtering, he glared at the two high-fiving jocks.

"Wow, Dash, you're really getting original," Danny said, wringing out his shirt. It would dry off pretty soon. He would need to change the bandage once he got home, though. Maybe they'd have to skip the roller coaster. "I mean, it's not like you've been soaking me with that thing every summer since we were _eight._"

"Whoa whoa wait, was that a challenge to step up my game?" Dash said. Danny looked up in surprise. Had Dash actually caught his sarcasm? The blonde shoved his Super Soaker into Kwan's arms. "Kwan, hold my gun."

"You get 'im baby, I got your gun," Kwan said, grinning.

"No it wasn't a challenge Dash what are you doOOING-!" before Danny could make a break for it, Dash had grabbed him and hefted him over his head.

"INCOMING!" Dash yelled and threw Danny into the pool, belly flop style. The water's slap stung against his stomach, face, and thighs, but that was nothing compared to the sudden jolt of pain across his left shoulder blade. Danny erupted out of the water, gasping and trying to clutch at it. He pulled himself out of the pool blindly, face screwed up in pain.

"Ow ow ow ow," he muttered. He could hear Dash and Kwan laughing and high fiving again.

"Oh come on, Fenton, that's not nearly the worst thing I've-wait, is that blood?"

"Danny, are you okay?!" Sam alighted next to him and helped him to his feet. "Here, get on this recliner."

"I'm fine, Sam, something must've just torn open is all."

But he didn't protest when Sam pulled off his soggy shirt, careful not to pull off the bandage at the same time. She was almost shocked. Besides the bandage that was wrapped around his chest and across his shoulder, there were pink lightning scars across his stomach, old burn wounds, and a couple of white gashes as though he had been in several knife fights. A reddish-purple bruise peeked out from the edges of the now soaking bandage.

"Danny, when did all this happen?" Tucker said cluelessly. Sam frowned meaningfullyat him. "Oh, I mean uh, you should've told us you were wounded, man. When did you get all bandaged?"

"The other night. I had Jazz help me," Danny said sheepishly. He wrung out his shirt and winced as the movement pulled at his wound.

"We should go change this," Sam said, "it looks like it re-opened and we don't want it to get infected." she shot a glare at the blonde, who had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know he was injured?" Dash said. He and Kwan looked uncomfortable. The unblemished state of their own bare torsos was starting to make Sam angry. It was obvious that they hadn't gotten anything beyond the occasional concussion or broken arm, while Danny looked like he had been struck by lightning and shot at several times-which he had. And yet there they stood, chest held high, while Danny felt like he had to hide. Where was the justice in that?

"Here's an idea, how about you just don't throw people into the pool, jerkwad?" Sam wrapped a towel around Danny's shoulders. "Come on Danny, let's get you home."


	2. Blood Blossoms

**A sort-of prompt from tumblr user guardiankarenterrier. Thanks for the idea!**

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"Ugh. Yet another day of disgusting cafeteria food," Sam muttered as a questionably vegetarian slop was plopped onto her plate. "The monotony wears on."

"Wow, you're particularly Goth today," Tucker said, sliding his tray along beside her. "Bad weekend? I didn't see you a lot."

"Yeah, well, family time and all that. When my mom heard Danny was off on a family road trip she jumped at the opportunity. We painted _nails._"

"But your nails aren't painted."

"Not anymore," Sam said darkly. Then she spotted a mess of jet black hair sitting at their usual table. "Hey, Danny!" she set her tray down next to his, with Tucker across from her. "I thought you wouldn't be back until tonight. Not that I mind."

"Yeah, well, I started getting this really weird rash so we cut the vacation short. But I still have to go to school." he itched absentmindedly at his chest.

"Are you _sure _you should be here? You look kinda pale." Sam said worriedly.

"Eh, I'll be fine." he brightened a little. "My _dad _actually packed my lunch today. Can you believe that?"

"Uh, no," Tucker said, eyeing the brown sack warily. "Are you sure you should eat that? There might be ectoplasm in there or something."

"My mom said she supervised," Danny said, shrugging. "Besides, a little ectoplasm never hurt anyone, right?" he winked at Sam and nudged her a little.

"I have no idea what that was supposed to mean."

The three of them continued to chatter on as Danny pulled out perfectly normal lunch items: a sandwich, a container of applesauce, and a capri sun.

"See, Tucker?" Danny said, pulling out the sandwich, "perfectly normal."

"Wait, Danny aren't those-"

Danny looked up at his friend, already chewing a large bite of sandwich. His eyes widened, and he looked down at one of the red flowers hanging out of the bread.

"AAAGH!" he screamed as red smoke billowed out of his mouth. The cafeteria chatter died down as he stumbled over to the nearest trash can and spat out his sandwich. But he must have accidentally ingested some. Sam and Tucker could hear retching.

"Billions of people in the world," Sam said wearily, "and Danny gets the set of parents who unwittingly put _blood blossoms _in his food."


	3. Suspicious Wounds

**(warning: there's blood in this chapter.)**

**(also, this is based off of a phanart by loonychild on tumblr-the link is in my profile).**

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Danny floated through his bedroom window, setting the thermos gingerly on a nearby cluttered surface-it hardly mattered where, he was so tired. And he was definitely going to feel those wounds tomorrow. Scratch that-today. The clock on his bedside table glowed an icy 1:30.

Haha. Icy. Danny managed a faded smirk before deciding that maybe it wasn't funny that an ice ghost had nearly frozen Amity Park and its residents. It probably would have been funnier if the ghost hadn't also sent ice bullets at him that resisted intangibility. Honestly, Danny was lucky to have gotten out alive. Half-alive. Danny shot a glare at the innocent-looking thermos and changed back into his human form. Immediately it felt as though he had been cut up all over again. And, he noticed, he was bleeding on his carpet. Muttering curses in his head that Maddie Fenton would have grounded him for, Danny slipped through the walls and into the bathroom across from his room. He flicked on the light, wincing at the blinding fluorescent bulbs, and stepped into the bathtub so that the blood would at least be easy to clean up.

And there was a lot of blood to be accounted for. The sight and smell was starting to make Danny feel light-headed and like there was a cotton monster crawling down his throat. He peeled off his shirt and pants so he could get a better look at his wounds. The nastiest was a head wound, which accounted for most of the blood, but the bruises on his limbs were pretty bad as well. There were cuts just below his knees and elbows where those ice bullets had gotten him. Wiping the blood out of his face, Danny dazedly walked over to the mirror, hyper-aware that if he made too much noise it could wake someone up.

Without the puffy lip, the blood running down his face almost looked kind of cool. Danny leaned forward and put a hand to the mirror. His own face looked deathly pale. Probably losing too much blood. He leaned down and washed off the head wound with shaking hands. Oh, good it had stopped bleeding and he should probably sit down now.

Danny sank to the floor and put his head between his knees. The room seemed brighter than before, and it felt like his body was having hot and cold flashes at the same time, a sure sign that he was about to pass out. He gritted his teeth, hugging himself, digging his fingers into his arms so that the tips of his nails turned white. He hated fainting. To distract himself, he tried to make a mental checklist.

_Don't pass out._

_Get some water._

_Go to bed._

_Don't bleed everywhere._

_Clean up the blood._

_Go to bed-wait I already put that on the list. _

_Maybe I'll take a shower. _

Yeah. That would help clean the blood off of his body, and then he could bandage himself up and clean up the bloody mess of a bathroom. With any luck, Jazz wouldn't have to use the bathroom for a few hours.

Almost as soon as he'd had that thought, Danny heard a soft knock on the bathroom door. "Danny?" came his sister's sleepy voice. "Y'in there?"

"Yeah," Danny tried to call back, but his throat was too dry. He was in the middle of trying again when the door slowly opened and Jazz appeared in the doorway, eyes half-closed and puffy from sleep. "Yes I'm in here!" Danny finally managed, "get out!"

"Sorry," Jazz muttered, and closed the door. Danny breathed a sigh of relief and was on the verge of standing up when the door flew back open. "Danny!" Jazz gasped, rushing forward. Danny flushed and tried to cover the wounds on his legs, pressing himself back against the wall.

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep, Jazz," he said weakly.

"Like hell I am!" Jazz said fiercely, kneeling in front of her brother. She took his face in her hands. "Open your eyes, I need to check for a concussion."

"Try to keep it down, okay?" Danny said. He sounded like he was on the verge of crying.

"Yep, you've got a concussion," Jazz said a little more quietly. To Danny's surprise, she didn't immediately fire him with questions on how he got the wounds, but instead asked, "What were you going to do, Danny? Pass out and bleed to death without telling anyone?"

"Just a… flesh wound," Danny muttered. His face was deathly pale. "Gonna take a shower, then, uh… bandages?"

"Good idea," Jazz said quietly. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'll start the shower so you can get in, and while you're washing off I'll clean this place up. Any broken bones? Or deep cuts?"

"No, nothing… too deep," Danny said. "Jazz?"

Jazz, who had gotten to her feet, looked down at her somewhat pathetic-looking brother. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"No problem." And, just like he expected her to, she jabbed an accusing finger at him. "But as soon as we have you cleaned up you're telling me _everything._"


End file.
